Help shape development concepts for Southdale Library site

January 05, 2017

The City of Edina is hosting two upcoming interactive workshops for the public to help shape preliminary development concepts for the Southdale Library site. Library patrons, neighbors and community members from Bloomington, Edina, Richfield and South Minneapolis are invited to attend one or both workshops. Participants will work together in small and large groups.

A workshop to shape preliminary concepts will be held on Thursday, Jan. 12., 6-8 p.m. Revised concepts will be reviewed at a workshop on Thursday, Feb 9., 7-9 p.m. Both workshops will be held at Southdale Library, 7001 York Ave S., Edina.

In the next three to five years, Southdale Library will be rebuilt on the same site as its present location, and there is room for additional development on the large 8-acre site.

“We collected ideas and suggestions from nearly 150 people during our initial meetings in December,” said City of Edina Economic Development Manager Bill Neuendorf. “The design team is sorting through that information and Hennepin County priorities to identify possible themes and trends.”

“We hope that even more people get involved as we begin to prepare concepts.”

Design concepts will be included in a Request for Proposals that will be issued to the real estate development community. Formal proposals will most likely be solicited in the spring and forwarded to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners to make a final selection later in 2017.

Additional public meetings to discuss specific details of library design are planned for later in 2017 and 2018.